1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a display, and more particularly, to a display having touch panel capabilities and to a method of manufacturing the display, in which the touch sensitivity of the display is improved.
2. Description of the Related Art
A touch panel is a device that can detect the position of touches within a display area of the touch panel so that a keyboard or a pointing device is not required. The user typically touches the display area using his or her fingers or a stylus. One type of conventional touch panel is that in which the touch panel is manufactured separately from a display before being combined with the same. However, the thickness of the display is increased through such a design. Hence, in an effort to overcome this problem of increased thickness, there have been proposed displays with an internally mounted touch panel, in which the displays are integrated with touch panel functionality during manufacture.
The two main types of such touch panel displays are the capacitive touch panel display and the resistive touch panel display. With the capacitive technology, changes to the normal capacitance of the touch panel are sensed to thereby detect the position of touches. With the resistive technology, the positions of touches are detected by sensing changes in resistance caused by the user pressing the touch panel. However, since writing is not possible with capacitive touch panel displays, resistive touch panel displays, which do allow writing, are more prevalent.
In a resistive touch panel display, sensing electrodes are formed on a lower substrate on which thin-film transistors and pixel electrodes are formed, while conductive spacers are formed on an upper substrate on which a color filter and common electrodes are formed. Areas where the conductive spacers and the sensing electrodes contact by pressing forces applied by the user are detected. However, due to the formation of an insulative alignment layer on opposing surfaces of the lower and upper substrates, the resistance between the conductive spacers of the upper substrate and the sensing electrodes of the lower substrate is increased. This leads to a reduction in sensitivity, as well as to differences in sensitivity in different areas of the touch panel display.